Bowing to competitive pressures, Bank of America yesterday scrapped plans to impose a monthly debit card fee. The proposed charge antagonized customers and provoked vitriol from politicians all too eager to deflect blame for the dumb regulations that prompted the fee in the first place. But as much as one might wish for an end to this whole sordid affair, this isn’t it. Nor will there be a satisfactory resolution until lawmakers reverse the policy blunder. The debit card fees are a direct consequence of the so-called Durbin Amendment, a …
When Bank of America announced a new $5 debit card fee in late September (along with a slew of other banks), President Barack Obama condemned it, and yesterday some Democrat Members of Congress called on Attorney General Eric Holder to launch an investigation. Unfortunately, they’re setting their sights on the wrong target. Instead of taking banks to task for the new charges, they should focus their attention on the “Durbin Amendment” to the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform law, authored by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). This week, five House Democrats sent a letter to Holder …
Richard Cordray, President Obama’s pick to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, won approval from the Senate Banking Committee last week on a party-line vote. His confirmation to run the new agency faces fierce opposition from Republicans, who have vowed to block Senate approval until reforms are made to the agency. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) is leading those calls for reform. As the ranking Republican on the Banking Committee, Shelby has maintained a hard line with Obama and Democrats on Cordray’s confirmation. In an interview at Heritage, Shelby criticized Obama for failing …
Use a debit card? Now it’s really going to cost you. Bank of America announced last week that it will begin charging customers $5 per month for use of their debit cards. But if you’re looking for someone to blame, set your sights on Washington. Bank of America is imposing the new fee in anticipation of a $2 billion annual loss brought about by the “Durbin Amendment” — a provision of last year’s Dodd-Frank Wall Street financial reform bill. Signed into law in July 2010, the measure was intended to …
As if further evidence actually is needed, Bank of America on Thursday demonstrated yet again how government price controls inevitably harm consumers—and low-income consumers the most. In this instance, the nation’s largest bank (by assets) announced on Thursday a new $5 monthly fee for use of a debit card. Several other banks are likewise imposing a slew of new fees as a direct result of the deeply flawed Dodd–Frank financial regulation statute. Among the more detrimental of the law’s provisions is the so-called Durbin Amendment (a la Senator Dick Durbin …
Today the Senate is scheduled to vote on the housing bailout bill that has been circulating on Capitol Hill for so long its title today is simply “a bill to provide needed housing reform and for other purposes.” When a bill’s title includes the phrase “and for other purposes,” you know the American taxpayer is about to get a raw deal. This bill is such terrible public policy in so many different ways that it’s hard to pick which one is the worst. But we’ll try. Bails out the banks most …
The Washington Post may have shifted its coverage of the Wall Street bailout bill from the front page to the business section, but the newspapers in Connecticut, Sen. Chris Dodd’s home state, are rightly keeping up scrutiny of the relationship between the Democratic senator and the banks that would benefit directly from Dodd’s bill. The Hartford Courant editorializes: [T]he Dodds received a five-year adjustable-rate mortgage on their Washington townhouse of $506,000 at 4.25 percent and a $275,000, 10-year adjustable-rate loan on their East Haddam home at 4.5 percent. Such rates …
